


Just An Update

by eldritch_beau



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, here's a little speculation going forward :), its just a lil snippet, last episode was a feast huh, now with background beaujester, oHH shadowgast nation, post c2e91
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22355347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldritch_beau/pseuds/eldritch_beau
Summary: Caleb just wants to update Essek.Jester does it for him.
Relationships: Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 49
Kudos: 418





	Just An Update

**Author's Note:**

> just a short ficlet. as a treat.

Caleb knocks on Beau and Jester's door. He knows it’s late and they're asleep and he should've asked Jester do it earlier. He would've. _He would've._

If he had the courage, that is.

Not that he has much now either, but.

_No, he's going to do this._

"Who is it?" Jester's voice rings loud and clear just as Beau opens the door with a confusion that becomes her.

“It’s Caleb!” she yells back to Jester and stands at the door, narrowing her eyes at Caleb.

“Hey man,” she says, concerned, “you alright?”

“Ja, ja I”m fine I just need to…” Caleb tries to shove past Beau but the monk doesn’t so much as budge an inch. He sighs, and just then Jester appears behind Beau, pulling Beau away as if she were made of something entirely malleable ... but only in Jester’s hands.

“Do you have another one of those… messages?” he asks, now somewhat unsure.

“Oh yes, I do!” Jester’s eyes gleam with mischevious curiosity, “Who do you want me to send a message to?”

“Oh.. its.. Uh..” _how does he say this. He doesn’t even have a plan._

“Is it Essek???” Jester is wriggling her eyebrows suggestively and Caleb has an instant impulse to get defensive.

“No! It’s not!” he says, but just as quickly as it came, the instinct goes and Caleb sighs. The felt like a much better idea in his head and even in the confines of his room but now, now it feels silly. “ja, it _is_ Essek.” he concedes.

“Okey okey okey…” Jester says, making eyes at Beau, “what do you want me to tell him?”

“Tell him…we’re going home soon after so,” He shrugs, “Just give him an update—”

“Oh man, Essek!” Jester starts off without any preamble, “We’re almost done here so we’ll be back soon! Don’t get too lonely!! Thanks for everything!” the message is done but this message was only a flimsy excuse and somehow Jester _knows_ this because she ends the message with, “And Caleb REALLY MISSES YOU!!”

Caleb’s eyes go wide and he would protest but Jester has been teasing him about this for days, now. They all have. They all _know._ Beau’s face is pulled into a mask of shock and admiration and some kind of a panic that is perhaps mirrored tenfold on Caleb’s own face. And Caleb almost buries himself into his hands but he doesn’t move a muscle, like he’s waiting desperately for Jester to smile, a muscle to twitch, the tell-tale sign of response. From Essek.

But Jester pouts, frowns. 

“That’s weird.” Jester looks at Beau who is staring at Caleb curiously, “he didn’t reply, maybe he didn’t get my message. Did I cast sending already once today?”

“No, you didn’t Jes.” Beau reassures, “maybe he’s busy of someth…”

Caleb tunes out and breathes a sigh of relief, but it’s got the bitter taste of disappointment too. “Well,” he says, rising to his feet, “that was nothing, nothing at all... thank you for trying, Jester.”

And he is out of the door before he knows it, racing to his own room where he can panic and succumb and perish at the idea of Essek _almost_ knowing and the sheer luck just then, of Jester’s spell falling short. He is grateful .... but he is also so, _so_ disappointed.

He has barely passed the threshold of his door and shut it behind him when a voice, familiar and clear and tinged with that accent that makes his heart beat somewhat erratically says,

“Strange how the laboratory doesn’t feel the same without you in it, Caleb.” Essek says, “I will await your arrival eagerly. Stay safe until then.” And then a pause, like Essek almost says something and then decides against it and then decides to say it anyway, “I have missed you too.”

Caleb slumps back against the door, heart beating loud and clear against his ribcage, definitely oug of time.His breath comes short and shaky but there is that sliver of relief, a faint burst of joy.

A small helpless smile curves along the corner of Caleb's mouth.

\--


End file.
